Ed Sheeran has said he "spiralled through fear, depression and anxiety" last year after his wife Cherry Seaborn was diagnosed with a tumour and his close friend Jamal Edwards died.
The singer revealed how Seaborn, who he married in 2019, was told by doctors she had a tumour while pregnant with their second child.
Music entrepreneur Edwards died on 20 February last year at the age of 31. Shortly afterwards, Sheeran faced a three-week copyright trial, over claims he had plagiarised his chart-topping song Shape of You.
Although the court eventually ruled in his favour, the singer and his co-writer, Snow Patrol's Johnny McDaid, said the case had put an "extraordinary strain" on them.
Announcing his new album - (Subtract), which was influenced by those events, Sheeran said: "I had been working on Subtract for a decade, trying to sculpt the perfect acoustic album, writing and recording hundreds of songs with a clear vision of what I thought it should be. Then at the start of 2022, a series of events changed my life, my mental health, and ultimately the way I viewed music and art.
"Writing songs is my therapy. It helps me make sense of my feelings. I wrote without thought of what the songs would be, I just wrote whatever tumbled out. And in just over a week, I replaced a decade's worth of work with my deepest darkest thoughts.
"Within the space of a month, my pregnant wife got told she had a tumour, with no route to treatment until after the birth. My best friend Jamal, a brother to me, died suddenly and I found myself standing in court defending my integrity and career as a songwriter. I was spiralling through fear, depression and anxiety.
"I felt like I was drowning, head below the surface, looking up but not being able to break through for air.
"As an artist I didn't feel like I could credibly put a body of work into the world that didn't accurately represent where I am and how I need to express myself at this point in my life. This album is purely that. It's opening the trapdoor into my soul. For the first time I'm not trying to craft an album people will like, I'm merely putting something out that's honest and true to where I am in my adult life.
"This is last February's diary entry and my way of making sense of it. This is Subtract."
Sheeran and Seaborn welcomed their second daughter last May. The singer did not provide an update on his wife's health.
The album will be released on 5 May.
Source: Press Association
